“Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).”

This quote refers to interrelatedness. The Spheres unit contains interrelated components. It explains how Earth’s systems are all linked and how they work simultaneously. Food webs show how multiple food chains can be linked. 

These examples of Earth’s cycles all work simultaneously to create and maintain life. They have abiotic and biotic components such as water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, wind, soil animals, plants, and detrivores.

The Hydrological Cycle

The Carbon Cycle

The Nitrogen Cycle

The Phosphorus Cycle

“Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s action.”

The spheres unit contains consequeintial components. The unit explains how what humans do can have negative results on the environment. Runoff, insecticide, technology, smoking and factories are all sources of pollution.

Pollution affects organisms with malformations, illnesses and death. This frog has a third back leg. Pollution can also create infertility in animals.

This food chain demonstrates how pollution bioaccumulates and biomagnifies with each trophic level. Bioaccumulation and biomagnification begins in bacteria and travels up the food chain to tertiary consumers.

Our water quality experiment demonstrates how polluted water affects organisms. When water’s polluted, it can affect the entire ecosystem. Primarily it affects the water plants and animals. Secondarily it affects the animals that eat the water plants and animals. It travels up the food chain, resulting in bioaccumulation and biomagnification.